ICE move needs cool heads

The industry risks sleepwalking into a crisis as it enters a new era of clearing

By

Natasha de TerÃ¡n

Updated: March 22, 2008 6:30 p.m. GMT

The mortgage markets sleepwalked into a crisis and, anaesthetised by years of easy money, the credit markets stumbled behind them. The remainder of the financial markets, their regulators and many observers, remained blinkered until events started unfolding in all their gruesome reality.

But the futures sector appears to be oblivious to the problems. When representatives of the futures industry gathered under cloudless Florida skies...